Tiki totems, and lanterns hanging on ropes which connected to sticks all around. The smell of salt, the gentle breeze coming from the sea.
Rin and I sat side by side, watching as the waves crashed forward.

“Anything else you want to do, in this world?” I asked.

“Not particularly.. did you ask Liliath that same question?”

“She said anything is fine as long as I’m here.”

“That’s sweet,” Rin laughed sadly.

Liliath was with Prune. Prune wanted to know if it was a good idea to meet with the Nine Tail. Since Liliath knew a little about Shea, Prune thought she might have some info.

On the other hand, Nine was with Bleu. Apparently, [Vixen’s Pawn] can affect females too. Nine was having a check-up– of sort.
And this left me with Rin.
Rin snuggled closer to herself.

“What’s your world like?”

“My world? My world is pretty much what you read in the novels here about the modern world. Less exaggerated of course.”
“There’s no magic?”

“Nope.”
“No special skills?”
“Our world is slightly different. We do have something called TALENTS.”
“It’s like a skill?”
“Something like that. One person, one TALENT, or one skill.”

“Do love hotels exist?”

“Yes they do.”
I wonder where she read about that.

“We’ll see how it goes.”
Our time here is going to come to an end eventually so.. we asked Bleu about the possibility of Rin coming over to the modern world but, the answer was unexpected.

She said it was not possible.

That’s why Rin felt a little depressed.

“Oh right, and in our world, we use months, not seasons. 12 months in a year, 4 seasons. So 3 months per season.”
“Is that so?”

Should I even be talking about this to Rin? 

I sighed, “We’ll find a way.”

Rin nodded, staring out to sea.

Maybe Unknown can help with it? He’s like the only other person we can turn to for advice like this.

“What are you talking about?”
I turned around, it was Laura.

The elf sat down beside Rin. I can’t believe we almost forgot that there’s this person too.

“About returning home.”

“Returning home, that was something Oppa wished for also.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Previously, that was his objective.”
“It’s different now.”

“Yes. It has changed.. Noel-san. Is there any way to send him back?”

Hm?

“Why?”
“It’s been a wish of his,” Laura said resolutely.
Is Laura implying that she’s alright with letting Jiwon go? Jeez, the drama.

“Sorry. I don’t know, in fact, we’re searching for a way to return home too.”
“I see..”
“Would he want that?” Rin asked.

“He would?”
“Your oppa, you said that he wants to return, doesn’t that mean he’ll have to leave you?”
Laura smiled meekly.

“For his sake, I don’t mind.”
“Follow your heart, not his,” Rin declared.
“My heart?”

Rin nodded.

“His happiness depends on yours, does it not?”

Laura thought about Rin’s words.
“Still..”
“Well, it’s not like he’ll be able to return any time soon,” I don’t even know which God is in-charge of summoning them in the first place. So much for being the worlds ‘creator’. That’s just a stupid lie. 

It might not be possible to send him back home, but I can at least do him a favor.

===

“Dangerous experiment test one begin.”

Nine altered her race to elf.

Nine pinched her ears.
“I’m not an elf.”

“It doesn’t work that way, you need to change the source code,” Bleu shook her head.
“How about we copy and paste ‘elf’ from Laura’s status instead of typing elf into the column directly?” I suggested.

“Good idea.”

There’s probably some underlying code that you can’t get by simply typing anew.

Nine pasted elf into her column.

“No different.”
“Hm..” Rin mulled.

“Maybe my ears just won’t change?”

“I don’t know.”

I actually thought about prolonging Jiwon’s lifespan by turning him into an elf. I wasn’t sure if something like this was possible, so I decided to consult Bleu.

“How about other races?”

The only reason why we could act so reckless was because we’re in Bleu’s domain. Outside this, we wouldn't dare turn ourselves into swiss cheese.

“I’ll try to turn my race to human.”
I copied Nine’s race and pasted it into my column.

A burning sensation assailed my chest, I began spitting blood.
“Noel?!”

“Wow!? Undo, undo!”

I laid on the sandy ground and stared up at the starry sky.

“It works,” I said in between breaths.
“Laura-neechan, I think it’ll be alright. You wouldn’t want him to pass before you do, would you know?” Bleu said.

“But.. the dangers of it..” Laura was probably in doubt after seeing something so grotesque.

Rin helped me sit up. Bleu removed the blood stains.

“What other options do we have..” Nine muttered.

“Did something happen?” Liliath appeared with Prune, teleportation. “I felt a disconnect for a brief moment.”
“We tried to see if it’s possible to change a person’s race,” I said, still catching my breath.
“Look, I’m an elf without pointy ears,” Nine pointed at herself.
Prune had a dubious expression. Laura looked at her as if she was an absolute disgrace.

“What was the result? I assume it was a success?” Liliath asked.

“Yeah, somewhat.”

“You’re not hurt anywhere are you?” Rin examined me.

“No, I’m fine,” if anything, Bleu healed me when she cleaned up the blood.

“Changing race..” Prune mulled.
“That could be what happens,” Bleu said to Prune.

“Then should I do it then?” Prune asked.

“That will depend on you. Moreover, it might serve as a fail safe if somehow Nine falls into their hands,” Bleu said with a wink.

“Fail safe?”

“Maybe I should just remove the title. It’s safer that way,” Nine said.

“Perhaps. Since you already have a strong ally with you, there’s no need to risk your life, and the life of everyone else,” Bleu said.

“You mean Vixen’s Pawn?”
“Yeah.”

If Nine became possessed, or if any of us became possessed. The dangers would be immeasurable. 

===

I stepped out of the apartment door, [Home Sweet Home] and looked around. 

I checked my map to identify his location.. not here. He probably went out on a date with Laura and Moirae.

Perhaps I should’ve picked a better time.

“Where’s Liliath and Rin?” Nine asked. It’s been a while since I saw him wearing that black coat, and his voice too.

Now that he’s removed the [Vixen’s Pawn] title, he doesn’t need to worry about losing control of himself.

“They’re at the academy. I decided to skip classes today to check on the situation here.”

If I thought a little more, I could’ve decided to just attend class and come meet with the Regressor later in the evening.

In any case, now that I’m here, I suppose I should look around to see what they’ve been up to.

“By the way, why are you here, Nine? Prune and the others went to the guild right?”

“I wanted to talk to you.”
“About?”

Nine’s serious, that’s rare.

“Demon Lord Javiel’s plan.”

Is there anything I needed to know?
“He’ll be aiming for this palace.”

“Okay..”

That’s convenient.
“When? He’s in the elven territory already right?”

If you look at the map, you’d find that there’s a very peculiar blood red marker slap in the center of the region. Oh, he’s pretty close to Prune actually.

“What do you intend to do? He’s probably got some tricks up his sleeve. While being undercover, the biggest concern I found are the types of potions and tools being created by the person named Iona-chan. I thought initially they were trying to poison everyone, or blow up the palace, but it doesn’t seem to be the case.”
“In what sense?”
I don’t know alchemy, nor did I dig into the subject. Because we have these cheat skills, we didn’t need to depend on them. But from what I know, the most common ones are recovery potions. 

“I just know that it’s dangerous, my instincts are telling me so.”

“Hm..”

Were we in a stalemate here? Why did Javiel come to the Elven Territory? He should be aware that Liliath was in Toren Kingdom.

“Whatever it is, we need to arrange a time to meet him.”
“Yeah.”

“Also, trust me on this one Noel.”

“What?”
Nine nodded his head, “Anyways, since you're here, want to try the deluxe chocolate milkshake?”

“Nine..”
“Coco.”
“Nine, what do you..”
Nine led me to the bar where the elf barista began making his magic..

“Nine.” This time, I called out to him in a slightly more severe tone.

“Yes?”
“I thought you said you removed [Vixen’s Pawn]?”